Words for Women Writing Memoir, #9

Memoir Writers, Storytellers and Journalers: Words to Ponder

Here’s the ninth word on our list that can first be attributed to the period of World War II between 1940 and 1945.

aeromedicine, n.

Etymology: aero- comb. form + medicine n.

Definition: The branch of medicine concerned with the health consequences of air or space travel; aviation medicine, aerospace medicine.

First used as listed in Oxford English Dictionary:

1943 Amer. Jrnl. Nursing 43 343/1 Lectures by physicians, skilled in aero-medicine, brought out that the effects of alcohol are doubled with lack of oxygen in the air.

Background for Our (Mostly) Daily Word

A memoir writer carefully chooses her words. That’s the only way to convey meaning and emotion to readers. There is another level of word choice that a writer needs to consider. Words that are appropriate for the time period.

Let’s say you are writing about your childhood and using dialogue. Not only should you use the language level appropriate for your age, you should also be careful to not include words that weren’t even in the dictionary at that time.

Introducing Words First Known to be Used During World War II

This year, we’re going to bring you words introduced during World War II — 1940-1945. We continue our fascination with that period after our research for writing the memoir Rosie’s Daughters. Words from an era help to define that time period. We’ll post a word almost every day — always late in the afternoon. Be sure to check in regularly.

Where do we find these words? The Oxford English Dictionary, of course. OED is a resource for all writers, containing information not just about meaning and pronunciation but also about changes in our language, history and origins of more than 500,000 words. It traces the original public use of words through about 2.5 million quotations.

It is possible to search by year with the word was first introduced. By putting in 1940-1945, we found 2,122 words with a first documented use during World War II.

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